Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Philip Reading

Little Philip may have taken forever to potty train but eventually, he mastered it. One thing he has mastered is reading. He loves reading, anything and everything. We cannot spell out words anymore to each other as parents because he will quickly tell you just what you spelled. It is a wonderful thing to see him at the library, picking out books because of the topic rather than just the brightly colored cover. There are other children that read by age four like Philip, we know this, so please do not think we are bragging on our parental skills. We did nothing to teach him to read other than read bedtime stories to him beginning early in his life. His desire to learn to read rather than be read to, we solely attribute to his sweet spirit and incredible hunger to learn anything and everything!

At preschool when it is free play time, he will often go to the book shelf and sit down and read aloud to his classmates. It was a proud moment when I overheard a friend say to him "Philip, how did you learn to read so 'good'?" A huge smile spread over his face and he looked across the room at me to be sure I heard what was said. I silently signed my "proud face" sign to him to let him know that I was, indeed, a proud mama.

Here is a typical bedtime for us. He is reading The Wish Fish for the first time (an Usbourne first reader - I highly recommend Usbourne books!). This is one of about twenty books he chose at the library this week and he is ready to go back and exchange them for new ones already. In this video he gets tripped up on several words that begin or end in consonant digraphs (th, sh, tch, ch, etc) or those that have multiple syllables. Still, not a bad start to reading!

3 comments:

Melissa and David Miller said...

That's too much Renie! I know a few freshman here that he could come and tutor if you guys wanna outsource him every now and then!

"Max Whale" said...

You know I sell Usborne books;-). If anyone ever wants to get some free--host a party--they have awesome books!!! We love the phonics readers like Shark in the Park and Fat Cat Sat on a Mat. SOOOO cute and great to read! They even tell you in the back what sounds they work on, etc. Way to Go Philip!!!!

Clan Hill said...

That is incredible! I don't think it's bragging at all. If Marley could read, I would devote a whole blog to it. You should start a blog where you post a video of phillip reading a new book every day and we can all show it to our kids for storytime. I know you said he learned just from you guys reading to him, but how did you do it? Did you point out the words as you read? I want to know!